‘Vavi, Malema plotting to topple govt’

Rustenburg — Former Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and EFF leader Julius Malema are plotting to overthrow the government, North West premier Supra Mahumapelo said on Sunday.

“If you listened to Julius [Malema] and Vavi speak at the Union Buildings, you can hear they want to overthrow the government. They want to instigate people and ultimately overthrow the government. They’ll never succeed.”

Mahumapelo who is also the chairperson of the ANC in North West, was speaking at the SA Communist Party (SACP) Red October Campaign in Lethabong near Rustenburg.

He said Vavi was portraying himself as an anti-corruption activist in an attempt to hide his past as Congress of SA Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) general secretary.

“He is trying to clear his tracks. He wants people to forget about what he did in an office at Cosatu house,” he said, referring to an affair Vavi had with a Cosatu staff member.

Vavi and Malema led an anti-corruption march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on September 30.

Vavi was expelled in March this year for bringing Cosatu into disrepute, while Malema was expelled as the ANC Youth League president in April 2012, for sowing divisions within the ruling party. He established the Economic Freedom Fighters in July 2013.

Mahumapelo said detractors of the ANC claimed the party’s National General Council (NGC) convened to remove party secretary general Gwede Mantashe.

“It’s not correct. The NGC is a political school. We’re going to spend days in a political school debating issues,” he said.

Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini told the crowd he had seen the NGC agenda and there was no mention that anyone would be recalled.

“The NGC is aimed at building the ANC,” he said.

SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande launched the Red October campaign, saying this year’s programme focused on the transformation of the financial sector and the media.

“The National Credit Regulator has just released a report that South Africa has reached its highest levels ever in terms of people with impaired credit records. All because of the drive to make profits at any cost by finance . . . institutions, including through reckless lending,” said Nzimande, who is also the Higher Education Minister.”